The present invention relates to a liquid cartridge including an electrical rewritable storage portion, a printer, and a method for controlling the printer.
In a printer of an ink jet type which serves to eject an ink (liquid) in a droplet condition from a head to a recording medium for printing, information about the amount of the ink stored in a removable ink cartridge (liquid cartridge) for storing the ink to be supplied to the head is stored in the storage portion (internal memory) of the ink cartridge. Moreover, information about a threshold indicating that the amount of the ink stored in the ink cartridge is almost zero is stored in a printer body.
According to JP-A-2001-199081, information about the amount of containment of an ink is stored in the storage portion of an ink cartridge. A printer reads information about the amount of containment of an ink from the storage portion and subtracts the amount of consumption of the ink by printing which is calculated by the printer from the read information, and updates the information about the amount of containment of an ink. The updated information is overwritten to the storage portion of the ink cartridge.
The printer includes the latest information about the amount of containment of the ink with information about a threshold indicating that the amount of the ink in the ink cartridge provided in the printer is almost zero, thereby deciding whether or not the amount of the ink in the ink cartridge is almost zero. When the amount of containment of the ink reaches the threshold, the printer displays that the amount of the ink is almost zero and notifies a warning to a user.
According to JP-A-2001-71533, moreover, a host device reads information from the storage portion of an ink cartridge and compares the read information with information about a threshold, thereby carrying out a decision in place of a printer.
In the related printer of an ink jet type, moreover, a head is held in a clean state and the maintenance of the head is executed at any time in such a manner that reliable printing can always be carried out. For the maintenance of the head, an ink is ejected from the head to a predetermined portion other than a printing medium or is forcibly sucked from the head, thereby preventing the head from being clogged or contaminated. The ink used for the maintenance is accommodated in a waste liquid storage cartridge (liquid cartridge).
According to JP-A-2002-29065, a waste liquid storage cartridge includes a storage portion. The storage portion stores a total amount obtained by adding the amount of an accommodated waste liquid at each time. A printer compares the total amount of the waste liquid with a threshold to be the amount of accommodation in the waste liquid storage cartridge possessed by the printer, and decides whether or not the waste liquid storage cartridge is filled up.
However, in any related technique with respect to an ink cartridge, for example, the internal memory of an ink cartridge simply stores, as a value, information about the amount of containment of an ink. In order to decide whether or not the amount of containment of the ink is almost zero from the information about the amount of containment of the ink, it is necessary to compare the information with a threshold possessed by a printer or a host device. For this reason, the printer or the host device is required to have, as basic information, information about the specifications of an attachable ink cartridge and a threshold for deciding that the amount of the residual ink is reduced. When an ink cartridge is newly added or the specifications such as the ink capacity of an existing ink cartridge are varied, furthermore, the program of the printer is to be changed and the amount of containment of the ink is to be correctly grasped corresponding to the variation in the specifications of the ink cartridge.
In the related technique with respect to the waste liquid storage cartridge, moreover, the storage portion of the waste liquid storage cartridge simply stores, as a value, the amount of containment of the accommodated waste liquid. In order to decide whether or not the waste liquid storage cartridge is almost filled up from the information about the amount of containment of the waste liquid, it is necessary to compare the information with the threshold possessed by the printer. For this reason, the printer is required to have, as basic information, a threshold indicative of the total amount of accommodation of the waste liquid and information about the specifications of the attachable waste liquid storage cartridge. When the waste liquid storage cartridge is newly added or the specifications such as the amount of accommodation of the existing waste liquid storage cartridge are varied, furthermore, the program of the printer is to be changed and the amount of accommodation of the waste liquid and a fill-up situation are to be correctly grasped corresponding to the variation in the specifications of the waste liquid storage cartridge.
Further, in a related ink cartridge including a waste liquid containing portion and an unused ink containing portion which are integrally formed with each other, a volume of the waste liquid containing portion is smaller than that of the unused ink containing portion for a plurality of colors Y, M, C, K. Therefore, the related ink cartridge has a problem that waste ink can not be supplied to the waste liquid containing portion in a case that all unused ink in the liquid containing portion is sucked out by a cleaning operation because the waste liquid containing portion is filled with the waste liquid.